CHESS Magazine: Forgetting our Intention

9/27/2017 – The practical point of this article is to minimise certain errors. Standard chess mistakes usually occur when a player misses a move or moves available to his adversary. FIDE Master Amatzia Avni, a psychologist by profession, focuses on mistakes that occur when you play a move without going back and rehearsing prior calculations and previous conclusions. Like Pal Benko in the 1962 Curacao Candidates, when he missed a clean draw against none other than Bobby Fischer when he forgot his original plan.

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Forgetfulness happens in other chess areas too. According to Knotts and Hearst, in 1994 Korchnoi forgot he had just played a certain move in a blindfold game and tried to play it on the computer screen once again on his next move, something that cost him a lot of time and eventually led to his overstepping the time limit.

Tigran Petrosian, in his third matchgame against Fischer held a better position when suddenly his opponent claimed a draw: “For the first time in my life I fell for a threefold repetition... In chess I mainly fear two things: sealing an impossible move in an adjourned game and falling into a threefold repetition with a better position; [...] when Fischer demanded the draw I could not understand what triple repetition he was talking about.”

Also, forgetting one’s preparation is a frequent phenomenon. Especially in the modern era, when there are loads of opening variations to memorise, many players complain that they just couldn’t reconstruct the moves they were rehearsing at home. Mixing up variations happened too (in the old days) in adjournment analysis, even at the highest levels.

“We often look for and note enemy possibilities before beginning our calculations; but once we get involved in a deep line of analysis, it’s easy to forget our earlier conclusions”—Bruce Pandolfini

Convinced that the phenomenon is not infrequent, I asked some friends if they encounter such occurrences in their games. This elicited only one response; I suppose most people are not keen on seeing their embarrassing moments in print...

Sometimes forgetfulness is positive: it’s good if our defeats are not stuck in our long-term memory, so that we can move on. One’s victories should also recede into the background during play. Vishy Anand said in a 2015 interview that his habit of ‘forgetting’ his achievements to keep his motivation intact has contributed immensely to his results.

Ignoring noise, smell or other distractions is also advisable, as is disregarding one’s previous score with our opponent. However, forgetting our plans during a game can hardly be a good thing.

I will presume that a lot of readers are seeking the practical point of this article, i.e. what they have to do to minimise such errors in their games. As the game develops, before each move one has to constantly go back and rehearse prior calculations and previous conclusions. More broadly, any solution lies in maintaining a high level of concentration. Elaborating on ways of achieving this, I shall leave to other writers.

The above article was reproduced from Chess Magazine September, 2017, with kind permission.

CHESS Magazine was established in 1935 by B.H. Wood who ran it for over fifty years. It is published each month by the London Chess Centre and is edited by IM Richard Palliser and Matt Read.

The Executive Editor is Malcolm Pein, who organises the London Chess Classic.

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The latest edition of CBM is for ‘August/September 2017’ and has a special focus on the main events of June: Norway Chess and the World Team Championship. Elsewhere there are the usual opening surveys, as well as video contributions by Daniel King and Simon Williams, the former taking a look at how to meet the Exchange Lopez.

‘Why bother learning hundreds of complex variations and keeping up with the latest theory when you can play a simple yet deadly opening - the London System with 2.Bf4. In this DVD I take you through all the main ideas and setups that you need in order to gain a very exciting yet well founded opening game with the White pieces. The most important thing in my teaching is to keep things simple yet aggressive. This DVD concentrates on plans that will help you gain victory quickly. A perfect opening for the player with little time on his hands. Carlsen has started to play this opening regularly, now I share his secrets with you.

1 Nf3 followed by 2 c4 is, of course, by no means a new development, but it has been quite topical of late and might just surprise many opponents at club level. Bologan is certainly keen on emphasising the typical plans and motifs for White, as he takes the viewer through some 30 mini video lectures. The Symmetrical English lines after 1 Nf3 c5 2 c4 Nf6 3 Nc3 can certainly become quite theoretical, but here and with 1 Nf3 d5 2 c4 c6 3 g3 there should be sufficient coverage for most viewers. Bologan admits that he has not covered quite every black defence, which is honest and shouldn’t be too big a deterent to getting the viewer up and running with 1 Nf3, but quite possibly not all will want to meet the King’s Indian, 1...Nf6 2 c4 g6, with 3 b4!?.

The Caro Kann is a very tricky opening. Black’s play is based on controlling and fighting for key light squares. It is a line which was very fashionable in late 90s and early 2000s due to the successes of greats like Karpov, Anand, Dreev etc. Recently due to strong engines lot of key developments have been made and some new lines have been introduced, while others have been refuted altogether. "I have analyzed the new trends carefully and found some new ideas for Black. I have suggested the lines which I personally prefer and employ in practice."

The top player from India completes his repoertoire for Black against 1.e4 with the Caro-Kann Advance Variation. Look forward to an intensive and exciting training course with many new idear that the author has successfully applied against world-class players himself. "I used many of them with great success, managing to score important wins over top GMs Vachier Lagrave, Radjabov, Jobava and drawing against Vishy Anand. I am sure you will learn a lot about the opening!"

The popular English Grandmaster isn’t a man one associates with dull positions, so that he considers 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Nc3 N f6 to be quite a viable position as White makes one sit up and take notice. Williams covers both 4 Bb5 and 4 d4 exd4 5 Nxd4, two sensible options where he does his best to avoid excessive theory and to inject an attacking bent where possible. Unsurprisingly, though, some of the recommendations are still quite positional, something which one couldn’t describe the concluding Belgrade Gambit (4 d4 exd4 5 Nd5!?) coverage as.

Openings such as the London System and the Trompowsky, once considered side lines, are now just as common in the professional game as at club level. White aims to avoid complex theoretical lines and to start from a solid basis. Yet these openings are not without bite. On this DVD, Grandmaster Daniel King presents a repertoire for Black allowing you to face these systems with confidence. The aim of these recommendations is to come out of the opening with sound development, a sound pawn structure, a secure king, and a dynamic position that gives winning chances.

CHESS MagazineCHESS Magazine was established in 1935 by B.H. Wood who ran it for over fifty years. It is published each month by the London Chess Centre and is edited by IM Richard Palliser and Matt Read.

See also

6/13/2018 – Here's another opportunity to sharpen your tactical skills: twelve positions taken from recent tournaments, for you to solve. As a special service, the diagram boards allow you not only to move the pieces around to analyse — there is also an embedded engine that will actually play the positions against you! That means you can work things out directly on the diagrams in the browser. Plus: you can get products from Chess & Bridge at a discount price!

See also

5/9/2018 – Here's another opportunity to sharpen your tactical skills: twelve positions taken from recent tournament. But we have a little surprise for you: on the diagram boards you can not only move the pieces around to analyse — there is also an embedded engine that will actually play out the position against you. Which means you can work things out directly on the diagrams in the browser. How neat is that?

Video

The Elephant Gambit (1.e4.e5 2.Nf3 d5!?) has never really been given the attention it deserves. It is a very useful surprise weapon. Let us list the advantages of playing this particular opening: 1) Shock value 2) It is very aggressive. Black can take over the initiative early. 3) Many tricky lines 4) Unorthodox. Black is basically taking the game to the opponent as early as move two. Not many openings do that! It's a perfect opening for young players and club players to adopt. Let Andrew Martin select a repertoire for you on this 60 mins, which, if used with discretion, will rack up the points. I am sure that you will enjoy this unusual tour of the Elephant Gambit.

Discuss

Alexander Kotov makes the same point in "Think Like a Grandmaster" but his solution is quite different from that suggested here.

Aighearach 9/27/2017 11:24

I think I made all of these same blunders just this week!

KevinC 9/27/2017 09:18

Thankfully, this has never happened to me in a game, but I have had it happen to my thinking watching relays of GM games over the years. For me, it usually happens when the first move of a variation is so forced that I start thinking only of the second moves, and I forget about the first move. So I come back and want to play the second move first. Again, at least there is no ramification to that other than possibly a bad kibitz.